Andrew Heaton

I think it's more beneficial when you can get cheap parts from various places, you can get cheap labor from various places, it ends up making everything less costly, and it allows different regions to focus on what they're productive at.

You're able to take that excess money and put it into other things.

Well, I think part of that republicanism right there is the idea of doing whatever you want as long as you don't hurt anybody else.

Yeah, and that's what the country was founded on, was classical liberalism, and the idea that you are a free citizen, you can engage in free activities, whether they're sexual or corporate, with whoever you want, as long as you're not hurting anybody else.

You know what?

I'm I'm I'm always open to arguments of scaling.

But like that did take place at a backdrop of mercantilism.

The idea of mercantilism was well known.

What you're describing is mercantilism.

What Trump is is a mercantilist like that was well known at the time.

So the point I'm bringing up is.

All right.

There's a bunch of things to unpack there.

Okay.

So in terms of the rising housing costs, I would say the principal reason that housing is getting more expensive is that we restrict supply.

Like America doesn't have a housing policy or an investment policy where we want everybody's house to raise in value forever.

No, it's terrific.

And there's going to be variation day to day, right?

But the principal reason houses are expensive is not because of free trade.

It's because we restrict how much houses can be built.